Chap. V. ANTIENT METAPHYSICS. i6i 



bones in the earth : And he thinks that a particular inquiry fhould be 

 made into the nature of the foil or rock where thefe bodies are laid • 

 as he thinks upon that muft depend very much the vegetation of the 

 bones. 



But, without having recourfe to bones or monuments of any 

 kind, if a man has looked upon this world, as long as I have done, 

 with any obfervation, he muft be convinced that the fize of men is 

 diminiihing. I have feen fuch bodies of men as are not now to 

 be feen : 1 have obfcrved in families, of which I have known 

 three generations, a gradual decline in that, and, I am afraid, in 

 other refpeds. Others may think otherwife ; but, for my part, 

 I have fo great a veneration for our anceftors, that I have much 

 indulgence for that antient fuperftition among the Etrurians, 

 and from them derived to the Romans, of worfhipping the 

 manes of their anceftors, under the name of Lares^ or Domeftic 

 Gods * ; which undoubtedly proceeded upon the fuppofition, that 

 they were men fupeiior to themfelves, and their departed fouls 

 fuch genii as Hefiod has defcribed, 



And, if antiquity, and the univerfal confent of nations civilized 

 and barbarous, can give a fandion to any opinion, it is to this, that 

 our forefathers were better men than w^e. Even as far back as the Tro- 

 jan war, the bed age of men of which we have any particular account, 

 Homer has faid that few men were better than their fathers, and the 

 greater part worfej : And Horace has beftowed apraiic upon Diomede, 

 for which he has no warrant from Homer, when he has faid, that 

 he was melior patre ^. But, when I fpeak of the univerfal confent of 

 Vol. III. X nations, 



* See PafTtriub's Diflertatlon De Lnrihus, prefixed to his Pi^urac Etriifcae. 

 t Operae et Dies, V. 12;. 



X 'Oi vMovii y.u.MV<i- TTctv^oi I'i T5 j^rctT^c: ct^Hcv;. OdyiT. B. V- 277 This llC putS 



into the mouth of the Goddcfs of Wifdom. 

 § Tydldes melior patre. Lib. i. Ode 15. 



